Uganda is investigating allegations that a former senior ICC official was involved in funding the notorious Lord’s Resistance Army, the country’s attorney general said Monday.
Brigid Inder, a special adviser on gender to the former prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Fatou Bensouda, denied the claims in a statement posted on X, saying: “The allegations are sensational and untrue.”
According to a press release issued by a lawyer representing former child soldiers of the LRA, “numerous victims have alleged that between 2006 and 2017, Ms Brigid Inder… facilitated and financed Joseph Kony, the leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in Uganda”.
Kony, who remains at large, launched a bloody rebellion more than three decades ago seeking to impose his own version of the Ten Commandments in northern Uganda, unleashing a campaign of terror that spread to several countries.
“We have received… information about the alleged involvement of the named ICC official in funding the LRA activities including money to buy weapons and our relevant bodies are investigating the claims,” Uganda’s attorney general Kiryowa Kiwanuka told AFP.
“These are serious criminal allegations and if they are found to be correct, the official will be prosecuted to ensure justice for the victims,” Kiwanuka said, without elaborating.
Inder, who was the former executive director of the Women’s Initiatives for Gender Justice (WIGJ) and involved in peace talks between the LRA and Uganda’s government, said in the statement posted on September 21 that she “categorically refutes” the allegations.
“I have never met Mr Joseph Kony. I have never handed Mr Kony envelopes full of money.
“I have never… engaged in any activities that were intended to support the military aspirations and conflict-related activities of the LRA,” she said, adding that the allegations stemmed from a disgruntled employee who was dismissed from WIGJ for misconduct in 2014.
More than 100,000 people were killed and 60,000 children abducted during Kony’s rebellion, which spread to Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Central African Republic.
The Hague-based ICC issued an arrest warrant for Kony in 2005 on allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
